Our History
Reconnect was founded in 2011 in Bedford Stuyvesant in order to address a neighborhood need: too many good young men were having too many bad life outcomes. Too much violence…too few resources…too few connections to social capital…too little opportunity to imagine a different future.
Inherent in its name, Reconnect seeks to serve young people who are disconnected from both school and work – with most struggling from the consequences of intergenerational poverty and historic community neglect. In our founding community of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and now in Jamaica/South Jamaica, Queens, where we moved during the pandemic, street corners have become the center of life for these “disconnected” young people.
Reconnect was born with one simple idea – if young men aren’t prepared to leave ‘the corner’, then we transform ‘the corner’ – and what better way to transform it than through local, formative employment and a healthy, supportive community of mentors and peers? We believe in the power of change that is possible through the value of work. At Reconnect, the value of work is central to all that we do to achieve our mission. We also believe in the power of community. Our youth partners build trusting relationships and become part of the Reconnect community and remain so; many of our young people stay connected to us years after they have left us.
In 2011, our first project was cleaning a building lot and planting a community garden. Soon thereafter, we created a graphics and printing business, and then in 2014, we opened the Reconnect Cafe in Bedford Stuyvesant. Reconnect has grown to operate six small businesses. The revenues earned from these businesses go directly back into the mission of the organization.
These businesses are:
A Cafe and Apparel Shop
Culinary Food Services and Catering
A Printing and Graphics Shop
Building Maintenance/Basic Building Repair
Woodworking
Horticulture/Environmental Sustainability
All our youth partners become paid employees in these businesses during their time with us. We provide on-the-job training, mentorship, and social support.
From Brooklyn to our home in Queens…
About Thomas Berry Place Retreat House and Conference Center
Thomas Berry Place Retreat House and Conference Center is named after the Reverend Doctor Thomas Berry, a Catholic Priest of the Passionist order, a cultural historian, and a scholar of the world’s religions. Further into his career he also studied earth history and evolution, and he devoted all of his writing late in life in support of the advancement of environmental solutions for the Earth.
The Conference Center includes four conference rooms which can accommodate up to 150 people. The Retreat House includes overnight lodging accommodations for up to 50 retreatants. Throughout the year, Reconnect supports the Retreat House and Conference Center by providing food service and catering services for events, by supporting event logistics, and by providing custodial services.
About the Passionist Monastery
The Passionist Monastery of the Immaculate Conception is home to 25 men who have professed religious vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty as members of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ in the Province of St. Paul of the Cross, its founder. The Monastery and the Immaculate Conception Parish is also a ministry center in the Roman Catholic tradition.
The Monastery operates 365 days a year and Reconnect provides culinary services for the residents and maintenance services for the Monastery itself.
About Immaculate Conception Monastery Church
Having its first mass on Christmas Eve, 1929, the Immaculate Conception Monastery Church has served as an anchor for Jamaica, Queens, and its surrounding neighborhoods for nearly 100 years. Its parishioners are as rich and diverse as the communities the Church serves, Queens is the most ethnically and culturally diverse place in the United States. First built in the 1930’s, the “upper” church was built and dedicated in 1965. The parish was the home to many Irish and Italian immigrants, then eventually welcomed immigrants from the Philippines, the Caribbean, and Spanish speaking peoples from Latin and Central America, which comprise the largest ethnic group in the parish at the present time. The parish is called a monastery parish because it is attached to the Immaculate Conception Monastery and is served by the Passionists.
The Immaculate Conception Church serves a congregation of approximately 1000 families. Reconnect supports the church with year-round maintenance services.
About Our Home
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Reconnect moved from Brooklyn to the campus of the Passionist Monastery in Jamaica Estates in Queens. The campus includes a Monastery, the Thomas Berry Place Retreat House and Conference Center, and Immaculate Conception Parish. Reconnect works as an organizational partner to these organizations, providing a range of support services.
While Reconnect has its offices and programs on a campus with three faith-based organizations, Reconnect itself is not religious or faith-based. All of Reconnect’s programming and services are secular in nature.